Extinct Animals can be created by using frozen cells

Researchers at Scripps Research Institute in California are trying to bring some of the extinct animals back to life with the help of frozen cells. In fact these scientists are trying to create dinosaurs by using frozen cells.  The Research institute and San Diego Zoo have collaborated to bring back extinct animals to life so that a zoo of extinct animals can be created.

A zoo like Jurassic park may become a reality if the project is completed successfully. At present experiments are being conducted to produce stem cells from the skin cells of a dead drill monkey which is mainly found in Nigeria and Cameroon.  This breed of monkey is almost on the verge of extinction therefore scientists are trying different methods to save them from extinction.

The experts working on the project believe that “induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be biochemically converted into sperms and egg cells. These sperms and eggs can be implanted into the womb of other monkey to form fetus.  One of the researchers said that breeding from dead animals was actually possible under certain conditions.  The team has collected samples from more than 8000 animals of more than 800 species. These samples will be used for IVF to improve various captive breeding projects.

Though the above mentioned procedure seems to be working well on endangered species, scientists are still trying to ascertain if the same procedure will work for extinct animals as well. Technically speaking there should not be any problem in using surrogate mothers from other species to produce offspring of extinct animals. This brings us to conclusion that creating dinosaurs and other extinct animals is quite possible.

In fact an extinct animal ‘Pyrenean ibex’ was cloned by using skin cells and eggs of a domestic goat but it died soon after birth. The possibility of using some modified version of the same procedure to produce dinosaurs is quite high. As mentioned above, if the project is completed successfully, moving into Jurassic era for fun would not be difficult.